Sears Marketplace – Three Mistakes That’ll Sink Your Store

Are making mistakes on the Sears marketplace that are sinking your sales? How do you sell successfully on Sears?

Starting your own online shop is a big undertaking. You are in charge of developing the website, selecting a shopping cart software, handling all of the marketing efforts, and driving new customers to your store. While it can be done successfully, and new ecommerce businesses are emerging every single day, starting an online shop from scratch can be a risky endeavor. If you want to sell products online but are not quite ready to start your own website yet, taking advantage of online marketplaces may be the option for you.

Selling products on the Sears marketplace is a great way for small- and mid-sized retailers to grow their businesses. By having your products appear on Sears, you are able to reach a wide range of customers whom you may have never encountered otherwise. Sears is a widely known brand, and they have already put in the time and effort of creating a solid customer base. By selling on their marketplace, you can take full advantage of the work they have already done and simply focus on selling your products.

While there are many perks of selling on marketplaces like Sears, merchants often make mistakes that can limit the success and growth of their businesses. To help you avoid these pitfalls, let’s go over a few of the common mistakes that merchants tend to make on Sears.

Missing Marketing Opportunities

Being an online retailer can often feel like being a tiny fish in the vast ocean. With so many marketplaces, online shops, and retailers out there today, it can seem daunting to stand out among the crowd. This is precisely why you need to see the marketing potential in every situation.

Sears gives you the option to pay for extra exposure for your brand, products, and special promotions. If you want to give your business an extra boost, this could be the way to go. In fact, Sears has 15 million unique web visitors each month and 2.4 billion page views each year. With brand showcases, featured product ads, and display ads, you can showcase what you have to offer. It will cost you some money up front, but it’s worth it when you factor in the return on investment.

Advertising opportunities are hard to come by for a small business without the resources to employ an entire marketing department. Why not take advantage of an in-app marketing agent like the one offered by Sears?

Poor Pricing Habits

Pricing is a fine line to walk. You need to offer low prices in order to remain competitive against other merchants. However, you have to be smart when you are pricing your products. Going too low can end up costing you lots of money in the long run.

What factors should you consider when pricing on the Sears marketplace? First, do a little digging to see what other retailers are charging for the same or comparable products. Next, you need to figure out what fees will be associated with each of your sales. In order to sell on Sears, merchants are charged a $39.99 program fee each month. Then, for each sale, there is a 2.5% interchange fee and a commission rate. The set commission rates range from 5.5% to 17.5%, so it is imperative that you know how much you will be charged on various products in advance. Once you know exactly how much you will be paying to Sears, you can get a more accurate idea on what you need to charge in order to make a profit.

Inventory Management Hiccups

There is nothing more embarrassing or damaging to your online reputation than allowing a customer to place an order for a product that you later you realize you don’t have. If you are selling on other channels in addition to Sears, it is easier than you may even realize to make this type of mistake.

For instance, let’s say that you sell baby gear on Sears, eBay, and have your own online shop. If you sell the last of a particular kind of stroller on eBay, you need the rest of your sales channels to reflect that the item is sold out. Fortunately, there are tools out there that can make this possible. Our Sears marketplace inventory software makes it easy for you to manage all of your inventory. You can view all of your sales information in a single dashboard, and you can set your inventory to auto-sync. This means that all of your sales channels will show that an item is out of stock once the final product has been purchased, regardless of where it was sold.

Selling on the Sears marketplace offers great earning potential for ecommerce merchants. By taking advantage of marketing opportunities, making informed pricing decisions, and having control over all of your inventory, you can help your ecommerce business succeed.

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About the Author

Liz Pekarek

Liz works with the marketing team @ecomdash. Liz loves hanging out with her dog, Max, and exploring CLT. Go Panthers!